Tarrant County mental health: 'We need to do better'
Fort Worth Star-TelegramFeb 28, 2018
The report on
The committee not only met with local stakeholders, but toured the
"We had to wait when they were bringing a prisoner in with handcuffs -- we had to wait in a holding cell," Miller said of her visit to the 10th floor. "It was alarming to see what people have to endure to get psychological services."
The committee followed the route behavioral health patients take: down the elevator from the 10th floor, across a dark underground tunnel and back up to the hospital's
Among the other recommendations are a new patient tower and four new community health centers. But what the committee heard again and again, said Moresi, was the need for better behavioral health care.
"We need to do better," Miller repeated. Miller previously served as clerk of the
But voters -- and hospital board members -- haven't liked that idea in the past.
Back in 2015, a proposal that included a five-story psychiatric hospital for JPS was shot down.
Why?
A price tag of
He objected to the idea that patients had a "right" to a private room, questioned the bed numbers the committee arrived at and talking points Miller and Moresi used and reminded the committee the hospital's charge was to serve the indigent -- nothing more.
"I don't like when we say we match the private hospitals," he said.
The committee was not charged with price tagging its capital projects (and, quipped Moresi, a former hospital CEO, actively avoided it).
"I know the environment we live in -- which is don't go there, don't raise taxes." He chuckled. "And I'm one of those people. But sometimes, you've gotta raise taxes."
County Commissioner
While the need for additional psychiatric beds isn't new, the
The 298 bed proposal wouldn't even be meeting 100 percent of the county's needs. To meet the population needs, JPS would need to add 1,032 beds in 20 years, according to consultants. But the committee knew that even half that goal was unfeasible.
The Commissioner's Court plans to meet with the hospital's board of managers and have a plan about what parts of the report they plan to move forward with -- and how to finance them -- by mid-August.
Had experience with the mental health care system in
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